REVIEWS 129
sive sermon to prisoners one of them said to me : "I rather think that man may himself believe what he said." Lodgment of moral ideas is, however, better made by the Socratic method, and indirectly a religious or moral topic treated discursively, or by conversation between two competent conversationalists in presence of the pri- soners, or discussed pro and con by speakers and auditors, has proved the most efficient method. Too bald style of talk about God and goodness obstructs the aim. Prisoners instinctively close their minds against such pulpit ministrations. But when such topics are indirectly presented, their minds remain more open and receptive. Wonder is so akin to worship that to excite it leads on to self- discovery of high ideas, which is infinitely better than simply to be told about them. I shall not soon forget the evident religious impressiveness of three Sunday-morning talks to prisoners by a preacher broad-minded enough to omit for the time the common devotional items of Scripture reading, prayer, and singing from the service. The topics were : " A Morning in My Garden ; " " An Evening with the Stars;" and "The Ocean A Voyage Thereon." Another, on another occasion, by a teacher perhaps the most powerful religious discourse of all I have known was entitled 4< The Seen and Unseen " the latest science on these subjects. In none of the above-named addresses was there any mention by name or direct allusion to the Deity ; yet, throughout each and all of them the thought obsessed our minds.
Professor Henderson well says that the teacher of a character school in prison, if he is to be of any real use as educator of moral sense, must himself have insight into the universal. But he should not ostentatiously proclaim it ; rather let the prisoners feel and find it for themselves.
Z. R. BROCKWAY.
ELMIRA, N. Y.
A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Chiefly in England and the United States; with an Introductory Analysis of the Literature and the Theories of Primitive Marriage and the Family. By GEORGE ELLIOTT HOWARD, PH.D., Profes- sorial Lecturer in the University of Chicago. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1904. 3 vols. Pp. xv-j- 473; 497; 449. $10. THIS work is veritably a magnum opus. No work of similar
scope has heretofore been attempted, and Dr. Howard has carried
